The Trail Blazers were scheduled to visit the Indiana Pacers tonight in the first-game of a four-game trip. Instead, the NBA lockout has reached its 141st day.

Normally this blog would be filled with a preview and recap of today’s game, among other things. To fill that void, we’ve decided to showcase a moment in Blazers’ history. For every game the Blazers were scheduled to play during this lockout, we’ll dig through the archives and highlight something interesting, meaningful, fun or unsavory that happened that day in franchise history, and share it on the blog.

Rasheed Wallace heaving towels in the face of behemoth Lithuanian centers. Qyntel Woods substituting a basketball card for a drivers license during a traffic stop. Bonzi Wells ... well, being Bonzi Wells. The Jail Blazers era. It was an embarrassing time in Trail Blazers history and it will never be forgotten.

Which leads us to Nov. 18, 2003.

View full sizeBruce Ely/The OregonianCoach Cheeks has a word with Bonzi Wells on Nov. 25, 2003, before he enters the game for the first time since his suspension Nov. 18, 2003.

On that day, Wells was suspended two games and stripped of his co-captain title by the Blazers after using profane language to berate coach Maurice Cheeks on the sideline a night earlier in a road loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

It was at least the fourth time Wells had berated Cheeks in front of the team during the coach’s two-plus seasons and the punishment was the harshest handed out by the team because of “the repeat nature of the offense,” according to a story by Jason Quick in The Oregonian.

“This time I’m fed up with it,” Cheeks told The Oregonian. “I’m just tired of it.”

It was the move that would ultimately, finally, signal the end to Wells’ controversial stint in Portland — 2 1/2-weeks later he was traded away to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for reserve guard Wesley Person and a first-round draft pick. Wells did not speak after the incident in Dallas and wasn’t at practice to answer questions on Nov. 18, 2003. But Quick’s story detailed the incident:

Wells was taken out of Monday’s game with 4:17 left in the third quarter after he followed an erroneous inbound pass with an ill-advised 22-foot jump shot three possessions later.

On his way off the court, Wells lashed at Cheeks with profanity, telling him he disagreed with being taken out of the game. He then continued to verbally abuse the coach with vulgar language and hand gestures while standing on the sideline about eight feet from Cheeks, essentially complaining that all he did was miss a jump shot.

The words eventually triggered an angry response from Cheeks, who leaped out of his seat, marched down the sideline, and yelled while pointing his finger in the face of Wells, who then was sitting on the bench. Wells never returned to the game, sitting out the final 16:17.

Perhaps the back-and-forth wouldn’t have been quite so bad if Wells hadn’t crossed the line so often with Cheeks during their time together.

According to Quick’s story, it was the second time Wells had been suspended by Cheeks for talking back — he also was punished for cursing at Cheeks during a March 2003 practice. Wells also “verbally abused” Cheeks twice during games before 2003, once earning a third-quarter benching and once receiving no punishment. Earlier in the 2003-04 season, Wells drew a $10,000 fine from the Blazers for making an obscene gesture at two fans at the Rose Garden.

And let’s not forget Wells’ infamous quote to Sports Illustrated in 2001 that earned him a $50,000 fine from the Blazers: “We’re not really going to worry about what the hell (the fans) think about us. They really don’t matter to us. They can boo us everyday, but they’re still going to ask for our autographs if they see us on the street. That’s why they’re fans, and we’re NBA players.”

Ugh.

It’s no wonder Cheeks had reached his breaking point on Nov. 18, 2003. As Quick noted in his story, it was “the first outward sign from Cheeks that the Blazers’ litany of behavioral transgressions have worn on him.”

"It's just ridiculous that you have to worry about what someone might
say to you, or what someone is going to do," Cheeks told The Oregonian.

“It’s like I told these guys today. I read somewhere or heard somewhere that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. And that’s what we do here. You’ve got guys coming over here, saying this and that, and they expect things to change. But really, it’s not going to change. That’s why I say this is old. It’s old for me, and I’m tired of it.”